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"How much did Santa's sleigh cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This joke is met by groans that resonate through a storage facility in the capital.

We're at a humor-evaluation meeting with a firm that produces products for gatherings. Its repertoire includes festive crackers.

The company's owner smiles, nearly apologetically at the gag. But the pun has been selected and will feature in upcoming crackers.

"You measure the joke by the number of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," she says.

The secret to a good holiday cracker joke is not the identical as a stand-up gag per se. It is entirely about the context - in this instance, the communal laughter of the Christmas dinner table with elders, kids and potentially friends.

"You want the gag to be something that brings the child together with the grandparent," she adds.

The Neuroscience Of Communal Laughter

Coming together to experience communal laughter is not only ancient, experts say, it is likely to be pre-human.

"Therefore when you are laughing with others around the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammalian play vocalisation," says a professor.

Shared laughter, she explains, aids in forge and strengthen social bonds between people.

Scientists have found that a absence of such social exchanges can significantly harm mental and physical health.

"Those you talk to, and share laughter with, it leads to increased amounts of 'happy chemical' uptake," she adds.

These natural chemicals are the brain's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to alleviate stress and pain and in reaction to enjoyable activities, such as chuckling with loved ones over a truly awful festive cracker gag.

"It's not simply chuckling at a silly pun with a holiday cracker," she states. "You are in fact doing a lot of the truly important task of building, preserving the connections you have with the people you care about."

Which Happens In the Brain?

But what is actually happening inside the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount happens in reaction to comedy, it transpires.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of brain scanner which shows which areas of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the areas that receive more blood flow.

The research involves scanning the minds of healthy participants and then exposing them to a database of humorous phrases, accompanied by either a non-emotional sound, or recorded laughter.

"During the study we got a really fascinating pattern of neural activity," says the professor.

A gag stimulates not just the areas of the brain responsible for auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas associated with both preparation and initiating motion and those involved in sight and recall.

Combine these elements together, and people listening to a joke have a complex series of neural responses that underpin the amusement we experience.

The Contagious Power of Chuckles

Scientists found that when a humorous word is combined with laughter there is a stronger reaction in the brain than the same phrase when accompanied by a neutral sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would employ to move your expression into a grin or a laugh," the professor explains.

It indicates people are not just responding to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that follows them.

Laughter, according to the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this mean for the laughter heard at a holiday gathering?

"People laugh harder when you are familiar with people," she says, "and you laugh further when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to festive cracker puns, she says, the positive factor is more probable to be triggered not by the joke in itself, but from the reaction to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the terrible holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Search for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to find the ultimate joke?

Likely not, but that has not prevented experts from attempting to.

In 2001, a psychologist set up a research search for the world's most humorous joke.

More than 40,000 jokes later, with ratings lodged by 350,000 participants globally, he has a better understanding than most as to what works and what does not.

The perfect festive cracker joke needs to be short, he says.

"But they also need to be bad jokes, puns that make us groan," he continues.

The increasingly "terrible" the gag, he states the more effective.

"The reason is that if no-one laughs – it's the gag's shortcoming, not yours.

"The fascinating part about the Christmas cracker puns is that none of us considers them humorous.

"It creates a shared moment around the table and I believe it's lovely."